Tag Archives: Scholarship

Click here for more information on a three-day residential workshop at the Casa Velázquez in Madrid. Intended for young researchers, the workshop will explore new currents in Hispanic studies. It is organised around a series of lectures by the following scholars:

The deadline for enrolment is 12 July 2018 at 5pm. Applicants are required to fill an application form, which will be evaluated on the basis of academic record and language fluency. The 20 selected candidates will be notified after 20 July 2018. The workshop costs 50 euros inclusive of accommodation and lunch. African and Latin American applicants may be selected for a scholarship of 300 euros, intended as a contribution towards travel costs.

The generous award funds provided by ARTES Coll&Cortes allowed me to travel to Lisbon to investigate the transmission of Flemish art, designs, and techniques to Portugal in the late medieval period, on which my PhD research is based. The trip fortuitously overlapped with the exhibition ‘The Islands of White Gold, Art Commissions in Madeira: 15th and 16th Centuries’ at the Museu Nacional De Arte Antiga as well as the ‘Medieval Europe in Motion—The Middle Ages, A Global Context?’ conference hosted at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. Both introduced me to works of art and research with which I had not been familiar and underlined the complexity and ambiguity involved in defining artistic transmission.

Workshop or Circle of Quentin MetsysTriptych of the Descent from the CrossOil on oak panelMuseu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Inv. 1285 Pint

The fluid movement of artists and designs between north and south during this period means that just because something looks Flemish doesn’t necessarily mean it is; unfortunately, ‘style’ is often the determinant factor in classifying the origin of artworks in museums as well as in literature. Production methods can help elucidate if not by who at least where an artwork was made. To this end, the research trip sponsored by ARTES Coll & Cortes allowed me to collect data on the different joinery methods used in 15th and 16th century panel painting. Specifically, I sought out works joined by perpendicular dowels. Internal dowels, the predominate joinery method found in the north, in some cases dictated by guild regulations, are less likely to disrupt the surface of the painting; perpendicular dowels, however, tend to protrude slightly to the surface over time and can often be discerned with the naked eye. Current research proposes that the latter joinery method was predominant exclusively in Portugal (though famously employed by Hugo van der Goes as well).

Detail of figure 2

My preliminary investigations, however, yielded evidence that perpendicular dowels were utilized not only Portuguese panel paintings, but also in panels believed to be imported from Flanders. While it is too early to draw conclusions, the diversity of joinery methods observed suggest that either perpendicular dowels were not as uncommon to northern production as has been supposed or that certain works in Portuguese collections which have been classified as ‘Flemish’ were perhaps produced locally. I’m looking forward to delving in further!

I have carried out a three-month fellowship in London from March 1st to May 31st, 2017, conducting research in several museums, libraries and academic institutions of the city. My main goal was to study a selection of textiles from the Furniture, Textiles and Fashion (FTF) Department of the Victoria & Albert Museum. I have undertaken this work as an Erasmus + Visiting Fellow at the V&A’s Research Department in collaboration with the Marie S.-Curie project Interwoven (no. 703711) led by Dr Ana Cabrera Lafuente. Dr Cabrera acted as my fellowship’s supervisor and this granted me the opportunity of working closely to a specialist. Thanks to this, I have acquired new knowledge and methodological skills in the field of textiles.

Working session at the V&A’s Clothworker’s Centre

I based my study on the examination of raw materials, weaving techniques, decorative patterns and iconography of textile fragments and ecclesiastical vestments related to Medieval and Early-modern Iberia. These pieces were selected in accordance with the interests of the Interwoven project and my own. The research also paid attention to the dispersion of connected fragments and pieces among different institutions and collections, identifying them through a comparison of their catalogues and online databases. The reading of records and files held at the V&A’s Archive related to acquisitions from Spain in the early decades of the Museum helped me to complete the biographical information of certain pieces. The physical examination of the textiles was carried out with Dr Cabrera at the Clothworkers’ Centre for the Study and Conservation of Textiles and Fashion, while the bibliographical and writing work took place at the V&A’s FTF Department. This research will allow the Museum to update their textile collections’ data and widen the scope of information accessible on the Museum’s own database and its online version ‘Search the Collections’.

The Warburg Library, first floor

Beyond my work at V&A, I was able to devote a few daily hours to library research at the Warburg Institute, SOAS, and the British Library. During these sessions, I dedicated my time to the gathering of bibliographical material for an ongoing study on the role of textiles in the fashioning of clerical dignity and the valuation of the ecclesiastical space during the central Middle Ages in Iberia. I presented the preliminary results of this research during the ‘Work in Progress Seminars’ held in the V&A’s Research Department with a talk entitled ‘Ecclesiastical textiles and vestments from Medieval Iberia: promoting the clergy and shaping sacred space in a reforming church’ (May 2nd, 2017). Moreover, the access to the bibliographical resources held at these institutions enabled me to update and enrich the contents and critical apparatus of the forthcoming publication of my PhD dissertation, focused on the Romanesque sculpture of the Cathedral of Jaca.

During my stay in London I was pleased to attend conferences on Medieval Iberian art and Islamic studies, particularly the symposium ‘Gothic Architecture in Spain: Invention and Imitation’ (The Courtauld Institute of Art, March 16th, 2017) and the workshop ‘Researching the Islamic State: New Challenges and Opportunities’ (UCL, March 28-29th, 2017), as well as lectures and seminars on Medieval sculpture, Late Gothic fashion and Arabic palaeography –among other topics– at The Courtauld and SOAS. I was also able to exchange ideas with scholars specialising in textiles and in Spanish Medieval Art as Drs Lesley Miller, Tom Nickson, Rose Walker, Kirstin Kennedy and Nicola Jennings, and benefit from their advice and research experience.

Some of the Prize Winners pose with the ARTES committee and members at the prize-giving ceremony

On Thursday 29 June ARTES celebrated the winners of its annual scholarships and of the Juan Facundo Riaño Essay Prize with a ceremony held at the Wallace Collection in London. The Collection’s director Xavier Bray and Carmen Brieva Rodriguez from the Cultural Office of the Spanish Embassy joined the celebration.

ARTES started offering travel and PhD scholarships three years ago, with the aim to support and nurture young scholars in the field of Iberian and Latin American studies. The prizes are sponsored by Coll y Cortés and were awarded to the following researchers:

Travel Scholarships:

Ana Dias, a PhD candidate at the University of Durham, working on ‘The Apocalypse in early medieval Iberia: the function and impact of the illuminated ‘Beatus’ manuscripts.’ Ana will use her prize to conduct crucial fieldwork in three libraries in Spain, where she will examine three manuscripts of Beatus’ work to analyse at first hand their codicology, illumination and palette.

Maria Teresa Chicote Pompanin, a PhD candidate at the Warburg Institute, who will make three trips to Spain to examine archives, buildings and objects in connection with her research project, titled ‘Patronage, Fame and Memory in Late-Medieval Castile: Juan and Diego Pacheco, Marquises of Villena (1445 – 1529).’

PhD Scholarship for PhD students at working on Hispanic visual culture before 1800 at a UK University:

Maeve O’Donnell, for her PhD at the Courtauld Institute of Art: ‘The Castilian Altar in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries: A social and material history.’ Maeve’s thesis approaches the medieval altar as an assemblage of artworks with individual and cumulative religious, social and material significance. By donating or producing the different furnishings of the altar, craftsmen, merchants, bishops, and monarchs established personal links to this sacred space. In addition, objects displayed on the altar in medieval Castile functioned as barometers of political and economic shifts in this dynamic kingdom. Her analysis of Castilian altarpieces, frontals, figurative sculptures, liturgical objects, reliquaries and textiles unearths works of art that have not been studied before while offering an innovative approach to the medieval altar.

Scholarship for PhD students or post-doctoral researchers based in Spain, Portugal or Latin America who wish to conduct research in the UK:

Ignacio J. López Hernández, who is working on a dissertation about Architecture and Military Buildings in the Spanish Caribbean under the supervision of Dr Alfredo Morales at the University of Seville.

This year the Scholarship Committee was able to make two additional awards:

Francisco de Asís García García, for his travel to the UK to study reports and files held at the V&A’s Archive related to Medieval and Early Modern textile acquisitions from Spain (or of possible Spanish origin) and the iconographical analysis of selected pieces. This work is a joint collaborative study with the Marie S.-Curie project “Interwoven” (no. 703711) led by Dr Ana Cabrera Lafuente at the V&A.

Sylvia Alvares-Correa, a PhD candidate at Oxford, whose research considers the Flemish artworks associated with Rainha Dona Leonor of Portugal (1458-1525), including Quentin Metsys’s The Seven Sorrows of the Virgin; Goswyn van der Weyden’s Presentation at the Temple; a number of manuscripts, and the anonymous Passion of Christ in Jerusalem panorama, amongst others. By investigating the historiography, materiality, and iconography of these works and their place within the ambit of Dona Leonor’s piety and patronage, this project will contribute to the broader understanding of patterns of patronage in early modern Europe, artistic exchange between Flanders and Iberia, and the devotional climate of Renaissance Portugal.

The winner of the 2017 Juan Facundo Riaño Essay Prize was also announced. This prize was set up 5 years ago with the generous support of the Office for Scientific and Cultural Affairs of the Embassy of Spain in London, and includes a cash prize and a specially designed bronze medal. Like the scholarships, the essay prize is intended to encourage promising scholars in the study of Spanish visual culture (from any period) and is open to students at UK universities at any level of study.

This year’s winner was David Cambronero, a MA student at the Courtauld Institute of Art, who gave a short presentation based on his essay on lighting in the Great Mosque of Córdoba in the caliphal period.

I was the recipient of the generosity of the ARTES Coll & Cortés Travel Scholarship both in 2014 and in 2015, which contributed significantly to the advancement of my PhD research. Both grants were used to support periods of field research in Catalonia, specifically four months in Spring-Summer 2014 and one month in the Summer of 2015.

My PhD research focuses on the reconstruction of the lost Romanesque cathedral of Tortosa, a small town in Southern Catalonia. The Romanesque structure was built in the second half of the twelfth century and later demolished between 1428 and 1703 for the construction of the extant Gothic building. Besides the reconstruction of the lost building, my aim is to shed some light on the connections between Tortosa and the other ecclesiastical buildings of the area, including other Southern Catalan cathedrals and small-scale churches. This is especially important since Tortosa was the first cathedral erected in the region after the Christian conquest of 1148.

Due to the nature of my research, field work is of extreme importance for the study of

archaeological remains in Tortosa, the consultation of local archives, and the analysis of the architectural evidence of the surrounding region for the elaboration of comparisons with contemporary ecclesiastical buildings.

The main achievement of my 2014 stay concerned the reconstruction of the design of the lost cathedral. Earlier analyses had allowed me to develop a number of hypotheses on the original plan of the building, but the lack of solid physical evidence was creating a number of difficulties. Luckily my presence in Catalonia allowed me to learn of a Georadar survey of the Gothic church conducted by a team from the Architecture Faculty of the University Rovira i Virgili in Reus. I was able to meet the research team and work with them on the topic, finally receiving a concrete validation and refinement of my theories.

Seu Vella of Lleida, eastern sector

Another valuable goal reached thanks to the scholarship was the analysis of the architectural context of Southern Catalonia. During both my 2014 and 2015 stays I was able to embark on a number of visits to sites spread across the region, surveying the major cathedrals of Tarragona and Lleida as well as the numerous smaller churches, such as San Salvador de Horta de Sant Joan, Sant Joan dels Ventalles of Ulldecona, and Santa Maria de Agramunt. These visits allowed me to reinforce one of the principal propositions of my research, namely the role of the Romanesque cathedral of Tortosa in shaping the architectural milieu of the region. I hope this argument will not only shed light on the development of Romanesque in Catalonia but also be a case study of the typical drivers behind the creation of a new artistic model.

On top of the two achievements described above, the ARTES Coll & Cortés Travel Scholarship allowed me to refine endless other aspects of my research and meet and interact with local scholars. I am therefore extremely grateful to the ARTES Coll & Cortés Travel Scholarship for making all this possible.

A report by Ana de Oliveira Dias, PhD candidate at Durham University, on the research she is conducting with the help of her scholarship

My Ph.D focuses on the illustrated copies of Beatus of Liébana’s In Apocalypsin, generally known as the Hispanic ‘Beatus’. Alongside Isidore of Seville’s Etymologiae, Beatus’s Commentary is regarded as a fundamental work of medieval Iberia, testified by its wide and continuous dissemination in this context, from the eighth to the thirteenth century.

The New Jerusalem, Beato de Liébana, Commentarium in Apocalipsin, (codex of Fernando I and Doña Sancha), Biblioteca Nacional de España VITR./14/2/, f. 253v.

As well as being amongst the greatest Hispanic bibliographic treasures, the ‘Beatus’ are similarly considered to be one of the most lavishly illuminated bodies of manuscripts in the western world. My project is an ambitious and rigorous re-examination of this corpus in its historical, religious and cultural context, investigating both the production and reception of these manuscripts. Building on this solid contextualisation, my research addresses the challenging questions of the purposes and impact of the ‘Beatus’ as an illustrated text, and aims to understand how scribes, miniaturists, and readers, may have interpreted them. Hence, this analysis will provide insight into how these remarkable books may have been used more generally, and by extension, will also shed light on the impact of the Apocalypse in medieval Iberia.

I am currently starting the second year of my Ph.D in Durham University, with the sponsorship of ARTES Coll & Cortés Ph.D Scholarship. During my first year of research, I focused on the contextual aspects of the ‘Beatus’. I considered these manuscripts against the general panorama of illustrated Apocalypses, and have examined their origins, particularities, and relevance as one of the most complete Apocalypse pictorial cycles. I have also explored the context of book production in early medieval Iberia. A closer look at monastic literary culture, and library holdings, was a fundamental part of my research, which has enabled me to grasp better the significance of the ‘Beatus’ in this specific milieu, and to understand which other authors and texts were prominent for Iberian monasticism. I have also conducted primary source analysis. The study of the ‘Beatus’s colophons was the starting point, as these remarkable textual inscriptions, of unusual length and content, offer a glimpse into scribal and scriptoria practices in medieval Iberia. Most importantly, they provide precious information concerning the role of these manuscripts, and how scribes envisaged their production processes as important acts of devotion. The results of this analysis will be integrated into a chapter of my dissertation on the significance of the ‘Beatus’ in the landscape of medieval Iberian monastic culture.

The Seven angels empty the vials, Beato de Liébana, Commentarium in Apocalipsin, (codex of Fernando I and Doña Sancha), Biblioteca Nacional de España VITR./14/2/, f. 213r

I have also focused on the textual analysis of Beatus of Liébana’s In Apocalypsin. One of my main goals in engaging with a work of such rich symbolism, has been to understand how its readers may have conceptualised and interpreted the Book of Revelation, and how this may have shaped their mentality and ‘imagination’. This analysis has been conducted in parallel with an examination of the Beatus’s iconographic programme, so as to observe how these images relate, on a primary level, to both the Scriptures and the Commentary. To assess the most suitable copies for this research, I concluded my first year with the study of the Beatus families, in order to comprehend the intricate textual and iconographic kinship between these manuscripts, which has been under discussion for many decades, chiefly in works by Neuss and Sanders (1931), Klein (1976), and Williams (1994).

By and large, my first year of research was dedicated to fundamental contextual work, which has given me a solid foundation concerning the cultural and spiritual setting in which the Hispanic ‘Beatus’ were produced. Building on this knowledge, my second year will begin with a thorough and systematic analysis of the Beatus’s visual imagery, focusing on the role of symbols and allegory in these representations, so as to elucidate the possible function and meaning of these remarkable illustrated manuscripts.

The 2015 ARTES Coll & Cortes scholars will be announced at a special drinks reception at the Courtauld Institute of Art on Wednesday 28th October, starting at approximately 6.45pm. The scholarships, generously supported by the art dealers Coll & Cortes, were set up in 2014 in order to encourage and reward young scholars studying visual culture in Spain, Portugal and Latin America. All are welcome, no need to book.

The deadline for submissions for the 2016 scholarships is 31st January 2016: see further details here.

The ceremony follows the first in a series of lectures on Spanish medieval architecture, also sponsored by Coll & Cortes. Further details here.